The Story Plan: How to Avoid Overwhelm at Any Stage of Writing

When one of my author friends told me she was overwhelmed by the thought of revising her draft, without hesitation, I told her she needed to create a story plan. Overwhelm creeps up on authors when they think about the enormity of the project before them. Maybe they’ve reached ninety thousand words, have three hundred pages to wrangle, or keep staring at a blank page. The key to combating this sense of dread is to make it manageable. A story plan shrinks the area of focus into something you can work on piece by piece. It will empower you to envision, write, and revise your story, no matter how long or nonexistent it is.

Give Yourself Accountability Check Points

There are several ways you can encourage yourself to make writing progress through checking in with other writers. I belong to a critique group that eagerly reads new pages of my work-in-progress once a month. They inspire me to keep writing, provide valuable feedback, and serve as thought partners as I create my story.

Sitting around a table with other authors at weekly in-person writing sessions at a local cafe has been a huge boost to my writing progress. It gives me dedicated time to think, draft, and revise with people who understand the challenges of being a writer.

Working with a story coach offers authors personalized professional feedback on their specific story challenges delivered in a way that accommodates their learning style. As a story coach, I get to collaborate with authors and help them bring their powerful stories to life.

Creating Your Story Plan

When I show up to a writing session or critique group meeting, I always get more out of it if I know what I want to work on or have a clarifying question to ask the group to help me get unstuck. But sometimes I use my dedicated writing time to create my story plan. I review where I am in the story, think through the plot and character goals, and strategize my next steps.

When assessing my next steps, I prioritize story structure and character development. I track how chapters and individual scenes build on one another. Once plot events make sense to me, I look at how my protagonist navigates what happens, their emotional growth as they pursue their desires, and how this propels the story’s momentum through cause and effect.

As you write your draft and revise your story, you will start to notice what story craft issues you need to focus on developing. A common challenge writers face is ensuring each scene contributes to the story’s momentum.

The following scene checklist is a story plan tool that works for drafts and revisions.

• Identify each scene event. (Does it move the story forward?)
• What does the point of view (POV) character go into the scene wanting to accomplish?
• What is the turning point? (something happens: antagonist, another character, circumstances)
• What decision does the POV character make?
• What does the POV character go into the scene feeling?
• How does the POV character’s emotion change because of what happened?

In addition to this checklist, my story requires some research. My story plan currently includes looking up how to use a rotary saw for carpentry, basic horseback riding instruction, and frontier medicine. Each story will have its own unique components to look into.

Implementing Your Story Plan

Knowing that you will complete several rounds of rewriting as you focus on different items will go a long way to reducing overwhelm. You don’t have to make all the changes at once.

When you have the list of things you want to work on, isolate one or two items to concentrate on next. Bring these selected topics to your next writing session. Focus on making changes to just one scene or one chapter. Going through the full manuscript will probably be too much for one writing session. By the end of your writing time, you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment because you’ve successfully made progress.

Fuel Momentum with Your Story Plan

Schedule your next writing session and make a note of what you’ll work on next. This will keep the excitement level high. You might continue working on the same item over several sessions, or you'll move on to the next point. Progress isn’t about fixing everything. It’s about knowing what to focus on developing next.

I’d love to help you troubleshoot your way out of overwhelm. Book a free discovery call with me to find out how story coaching sessions tailored to you and your story can help you get unstuck and make real progress.